Joyce homers to lift Rays over Tigers 6-3

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DETROIT(AP) -- On a night the Tampa Bay Rays needed a strong start
to rest their bullpen and snap a five-game losing streak, David
Price could only go five innings.

Good thing he made them all count.

Price struck out nine and set a team record with his 15th win,
helping the Rays beat the Detroit Tigers 6-3 on Monday night.

The Rays' blossoming ace walked four batters and threw 115
pitches, but only gave up two runs before turning it over to the
bullpen.

"I kept getting ahead of guys and then letting them crawl back
into the count," Price said. "This was a night where I should
have gone seven or eight innings, and I only gave us five."

The previous record of 14 wins was shared with James Shields
(2008), Edwin Jackson (2008) and Rolando Arrojo (1998).

"It's a great honor to set a record like that - that's an
awesome feeling," Price said. "I just have to make sure I don't
leave it stuck on 15."

Matt Joyce homered to help the Rays send Detroit to its eighth
loss in 10 games to stay nine behind Chicago in the AL Central.

Three Rays relievers finished, with Rafael Soriano pitching the
ninth for his 32nd save in 34 tries. The four Tampa Bay pitchers
combined for 13 strikeouts.

Chad Qualls replaced Price and pitched nearly two innings.

"Our bullpen was short tonight, and we knew it was going to be
tough for us to piece together four innings," Maddon said. "If
we didn't get five outs from Chad, we would have never done it.
That might have been the biggest key to the game tonight."

Joaquin Benoit pitched the next 1 1-3 innings before Soriano
took the ninth.

Armando Galarraga (3-5) allowed four runs in five innings.
Galarraga has only won one of 11 starts since nearly throwing a
perfect game on June 2.

"Galarraga had a bad night," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said.
"He had no control of the strike zone."

Joyce, who broke up Max Scherzer's no-hit bid with a grand slam
on July 26, led off the third with another homer against the
Tigers.

Tampa Bay then scored twice on sacrifice flies, the first by Ben
Zobrist later in the third and the next by Joyce in the fourth.

The teams traded runs in the fifth. Evan Longoria's RBI double
gave the Rays a 4-1 lead in the top of the inning. Ryan Raburn
hit a RBI single in the bottom half, but Price struck out the
next three hitters, hitting 100 mph on his last pitch of the
night.

"I knew that if I gave up one more runner, I was done, so I was
just going after those guys with everything I had," Price said.
"I didn't want to make us go to the 'pen even earlier than I
did."

Brennan Boesch's 14th homer made it 4-3 off Joaquin Benoit in
the eighth, but Jaso and Crawford singled home insurance runs in
the top of the ninth.

In the first inning, Tigers left-fielder Jeff Frazier threw out
John Jaso out after Carl Crawford's shallow fly ball. Detroit
took advantage to go up 1-0 on Gerald Laird's RBI single in the
second.

"We made Price work, we made him earn his innings and we got his
pitch count up," Laird said. "I was happy with our approach. We
just didn't get the job done."

NOTES: The Rays placed RHP Jeff Niemann (shoulder strain) on the
15-day disabled list before the game and called up reliever Mike
Ekstrom from Triple-A Durham. After the game, they placed fellow
starter RHP Wade Davis on the disabled list with the same injury
and called up RHP Jeremy Hellickson, who will start in place of
Davis on Tuesday. ... Ramon Santiago, who made his major-league
debut in 2002, started at designated hitter for the first time
in his career. He was the Tigers' 10th starting DH this season.
... Joyce's homer ended a 0 for 18 slump that included 10
strikeouts. ... In Longoria's first plate appearance since
breaking up Brandon Morrow's no hitter Sunday with two out in
the ninth, he faced Galarraga, the only other pitcher this
season to lose a no-hit bid with two out in the ninth.